Assam citizens near border living in constant dread of Mizo miscreants, claims Congress' Debabrata Saikia

GUWAHATI: Debabrata Saikia, the leader of Opposition in Assam, today claimed that Assam citizens living near the border are living in constant dread of Mizo miscreants.

"We observed that people are living in terror as Mizo civilians, or Mizo people in civil dress, as well as Mizoram Police personal in fatigues come and threaten the non-Mizo residents of the border area who are residing within the territory of Assam," Saikia said earlier today."

The Congress leader further claimed that Mizoram authorities have put up a barrier on a bridge which was constructed by the Assam Government under PMGSY during 2011-16 when Girendra Mallik was

The Congress leader requested that at least 5 to 10 persons be allowed to cross the barrier on the bridge. The Circle Officer of Dholai also requested the Mizoram Police personnel but they refused to the Congress delegation.

ALSO READ: 3 shops set ablaze by Mizo Miscreants in Cachar

Saikia further added that the delegation then went towards the Upper Painom LP school where a bomb blast occurred on November 6.

"On the way, we met some persons who are engaged in farming and they told us that they been regularly paying unofficial taxes to Mizo people so that their farms are not damaged," he stated.

The Ward member of Ward No.1 of the Securabil Gaon Panchayat also told the Congress delegation that at night unidentified culprits come and pelt stones etc at various houses and shout threats at them, he stated, adding that three houses and 15 shops were also damaged at a place called Lailapur.

"Then we went to the place where the second bomb blast occurred. People
there told me that on 7th November, when officials of the Assam Government came to the high school where the bomb blast occurred, some Mizo people with weapons came near the school and positioned themselves there. This clearly indicates that very tense days are ahead, as the Mizo people have already become very aggressive," Saikia further added.

Saikia further added that some locals have also claimed that the Mizo miscreants have threatened to bomb their houses amid the ongoing turmoil.

Saikia said that "it is very unfortunate that the Assam Government is itself allowing aggression by the Mizos" and several Mizo people have now started residing in areas originally belonging to Assam.

On 9th November, I and my colleagues of the APCC delegation visited the
Medlicherra Forest in the Patharkandi LAC of Karimganj district and found that on the pretext of Covid-19, the Mizoram Police have set up a check-post within Assam's territory, Saikia added.

In the Chutobubirbond Forest area, another contested territory, the Mizoram Police set up a barricade in reserved forest area and also allowed some Mizos to encroach upon approximately 7.58 hectares of forest land and do jhum cultivation there.

"These encroachers were evicted on 29th October by officials of the Assam

In accordance with a directive of the APCC, Saikia had led a party delegation comprising ex-MP Sushmita Dev and other senior Congress leaders and visited most of the "disturbed areas" along the 165-km-long Assam-Mizoram border in the Barak Valley on 7th, 8th, and 9th November.

The ongoing crisis escalated from the middle part of October and so far there have been group clashes, two bomb blasts in LP schools and the custodial death of one Intiaz Ali Laskar, a resident of Assam, in Mizoram. Mizoram officials, however, claim that Laskar was involved in drug peddling activities and there have been numerous controversies over the death.

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